Edward James Olmos toured the Holy Land over the last two weeks with his longtime friend, director Robert Young.

Mr. Olmos and Mr. Young said they were in Israel to do research for a film project about "Hillel Kook, the Zionist emissary and activist from Palestine, who, under the name Peter Bergson, led a U.S.-based group that pressed Washington to rescue European Jewish refugees during the Holocaust."

The project is an adaptation of "The Accomplices," a 2007 play by Bernard Weinraub. Mr. Olmos plans to portray Ben Hecht, a "renowned journalist, playwright and Hollywood screenwriter who was a key member of the Bergson Group."